1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a termination accumulator for an article handling system particularly for use with a rapid fire machine gun.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In rapid fire machine guns, particularly ones with fixed multiple barrels live ammunition may remain in one of the firing chambers or in the feed system directly aligned with the fire chamber after every burst. When the gun is not in use, ammunition remains in the feed system directly behind the firing chamber. Gunners commonly expend the last rounds of ammunition after use to ensure that the firing chambers and the feed system of the gun are empty for transport.
Many storage and feed systems have been developed to accommodate linkless ammunition. U.S. Pat. No. 2,993,415 issued to Pannicci et al on July 25, 1961, U.S. Pat. No. 3,618,454 issued to Christenson on Nov. 9, 1971, U.S. Pat. No. 3,670,863 issued to Meier et al on June 20, 1972, U.S. Pat. No. 3,724,324 issued to Zielinski on Apr. 3, 1973, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,469 issued to Ashley et al on July 24, 1973 are five references disclosing various double ended linkless ammunition conveyor systems.
With linkless ammunition being developed, ammunition is supplied to the gun through an endless conveyor belt. The gun designed with the endless conveyor is capable of taking much greater ammunition loads. With the increase in ammunition loads, expending of the last rounds of ammunition after each burst is impractical as well as a waste. Few systems have been devised to clean the firing chamber and feed system after every burst without the need to expend all the remaining rounds of ammunition.
The M-61 type rapid fire gun has a safety system which holds the bolts of the feed system in an aft dwell position to prevent further rounds from entering the firing chamber. All ammunition in the process of being rammed is then fired and spent cartridge is returned to the magazine hand off. However, in the process, several unfired rounds are positioned in the feed system behind each of the barrels. In addition, the unfired rounds contained behind the barrels are returned to the magazine during the next burst without being fired resulting in a waste of live ammunition.
General Electric has developed a gun, model no. GAU-8, which has a feature that stops the firing pin from falling when the trigger is released. The rounds in the process of being rammed are rammed and extracted by the bolts without being fired. When the gun and feed system are stopped, the feed system is reversed to clear the gun feed system. The feed system is cycled backward until the last unfired round is repositioned at the entry to the feed system. In this reversing process, the ammunition is rechambered and extracted without being fired again. This system results in the double chambering of live ammunition and the rechambering of spent cases.